Copying & Scanning

Photocopying and Taking Photographs Yourself

If you are working in our library, you may photocopy or ask for permission to take photographs of items yourself.

Which items are you allowed to copy or photograph yourself?

Items from the library holdings published in or after 1950 generally may be copied at the photocopying machine provided in the reading area – within copyright limits. You can purchase a photocopying card at the information desk.

For reasons of preservation, we cannot permit photocopying of materials published before 1951. In such cases, you can request reproductions. Upon request, the staff might grant you permission to take a photograph of the material, without using a flashlight. Please contact a member of staff at the information desk.

You are not allowed to photocopy archived material yourself.

If you wish to take photographs of archived material, you must in any case seek permission from the staff first, in no case use a flashlight, and assure that the photographs will only be used for your private work. Permission must be separately sought for each individual archived item. You are not allowed to publish these “work reproductions“, and you are not permitted to hand them over to third parties. You must destroy respective files after completing your work.

Special permission is required for publishing reproductions of archived material combined with publication fee. Please consult the paragraphs below on paid reproductions or contact the archive members of staff for details.

Reproductions on Demand

Subject to your request, we can provide you with reproductions of our archive and library holdings if they are in acceptable condition and in compliance with copyright and related rights.

Free Digitizing Service for Research Projects

Subject to the Specialized Information Service "Educational Science and Educational Research" which is funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG), the BBF offers a digitizing service for educational historical prints from its library collection, free of charge, if the following conditions apply:

• The prints are needed for a research project.
• The works are in the public domain, that is the authors have been dead at least 70 years, or the work in question was published as a monograph in Germany between 1913 and 1965 and it is out of print.
• The service does not cover journals and other periodicals, and we do not digitize materials that have already been digitized and made openly accessible elsewhere.

In the context of this particular service, we will always digitize entire works – not just individual pages or chapters.  The digitized objects will then be entered into our  digital library Scripta Paedagogica, thus they will be openly accessible to any interested party.

We regret that we have to deny requests if no research interest is discernible, if we cannot digitize the material because of its condition, or if the funds that have been provided for this service have been exhausted. Please understand that we cannot guarantee a fixed date for the completion of a request for digitization.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Stefan Cramme.

Online order form

Paid Photocopying or Digitizing Service

In compliance with copyright and archive legislation, you may place orders for photocopies or scanned copies of archive and library materials, provided that the items are in a condition that permits such a reproduction procedure. We will charge a fee for this service.

You can fill in a form to submit a scanning or photocopying order. In case of archival copies, too, it is not allowed to forward the digitized objects to a third party. You will find the ordering forms in the reading room for archivalia and special collections respectively at the library information desk. Please note that we do not copy entire file units, only excerpts.

Special permission is required for publishing reproductions of archived material. Reproductions can only be published in line with the purpose you have named, and by citing the archive and  the respective archive shelfmark.

For further information regarding this service and the fees we charge, please check our Conditions of Use and Fees for Use and Expenditures Regulations (PDF).

We are happy to advise you on site or by e-mail.

It is also possible to order BBF titles or excerpts of BBF titles interlibrary loan, by your local library. For further information, please check the paragraph on “Interlibrary Loan”.

If you wish to obtain copies of articles listed in our library catalog that have so far not been digitized, you can place an order immediately from the list of matching records in the catalog, or use the Online ordering form.  We will charge a fee for the copy. You can order copies even if you are not registered as a member of our library.  We will send you the printouts of the articles together with the invoice.